it is now official, the USA is going to have an openSUSE party all of its own. It is the first time that there is a conference of this type in the U.S. and I am happy to report that I have already asked my boss to give me some time off around the dates of this conference.

So far, the openSUSE Facebook page reports only a handful of attendants. Hopefully as the time nears, more and more people sign up for this summit.

There is always a good thing to note about online communities and software efforts like the ones we are part of. Most of the times we are far apart from each other and our only methods of communication are email and IRC. Our gatherings are on the net and rarely do we get to see everyone that is a participant in this project in person. Surely a lot of misunderstanding would be done away with if somehow we were to see each other face to face. There is always a sense of empathy that rises above the online encounters that we have as we try to work on a new release of openSUSE.

A new sense of friendship and collaboration is something we always strive for. This is something that makes me think that it is always a great idea to get together and work on the projects we love. Also, the location is wonderful. Orlando is a very fun city with a lot of things to do. Surely our weekend there will not be wasted. I am actually planning to have my vacation time while I am there!

The idea is simple, tell your friends about this meeting. Even if they are not part of the community, they can still come and see what this is all about. After all, it is the first time that people from these latitudes get to be together. Most of the times, the community has to travel far into Europe to gather as a team. Now we are promoting a time for people who can't travel overseas and can make it to Florida.